A cheaper solution

[robertmaul]

this response is for those that don't want to spend a lot of money.

i've been crunching the numbers on a pc build for a while and i decided to buy
an emachine et1161-05 preloaded with windows vista home basic for about $300.
(came with 160gb 3.5 HDISK and 3gb mem. 1 PCIE-X16 AND 2 PCIE-X1 SLOTS)
this machine also has lots of card and usb slots in the front. nice pair of usb
powered speakers good sound.

i would have preferred a linux machine but drivers for the graphics card are just not supported by the manufacturer (big brother microsoft influence no doubt)

i bought an nvidia geforce 8500 gt graphics card with tv out (S-VIDEO) for about $50
and it installed  in the PCIE-X16 slot. (drivers preloaded with vista)

also a hitachi deskstar 1TB sata 3.5 drive for about $80.  i downloaded the acronis true image home trial software and cloned the 160gb hard drive onto the 1tb drive and used the
vista manage disk util in vista to format the remainder of the drive in a separate
partition.  i then put the original 160gb drive with vista in a drawer for safe keeping.

i uninstalled the pre-loaded norton virus software and downloaded free avast virus
software as i don't plan to do any surfing on this computer. (media pc only)

so far my investment is $430 and i loaded lots of music and vids over from my old
linux box and have the S-video out cable plugged into my 3 year old sony trinitron.

next step is to see how the vid qual holds up when i plug the svid cable and audio
outputs into an old rf modulator and get use of the coax structured cableing i put
in this new house 10 years ago which i now don't use. (pipe it out over channel over
channel 3 or 4)

i got rid of COX cable as they raised the basic cable rate to $30 per month. my yearly
TIVO subscription fee was about $100 (whch encluded tivo to go on series 2 box)
that's $460 per year.

i got the coupons and got a couple of the zenith digital tuner boxes for $20
each.  one for the 3 year old sony 32" trinitron wega in the bedroom and one for
the 10 year old sony 43" big screen in the family room.

i live in far north scottsdale which is about 35 miles away from the broadcast
towers on south mountain for the phoenix metro valley and get every channel crystal
clear wtth a pair of rabbit ears.  (i am lucky to have a clear shot of the towers)

the sales guy at the tv store wanted to sell me a new hd tv and told me the
the zenith digital tuner box was no good and i should buy a new hd tv from him.
the box is excellent.  caveat emptor.

i have not decided on which capture card to get to put in the pci-e x1 slots.

the hauppauge wintv hvr-2250 looks good but software support is not there yet.
i won't use the hard prv encoding as i plan on using it for over the air
ATSC already encoded mpeg-2 signal capture.

but now i am thinking i may use this hard encoding if i run some security camera
signals to it for recording.

you may be saying to yourself, i thought he wanted to save money, now he is
buying security cams..  well i still have money in my budget becuase of what
i am saving on cable.

now i am wondering if should just get the wintv hvr-1250 with soft PVR encoding
and just stick to the low budget media center plan and build a separate security
system.

i use VideoLAN on vista for viewing my avi files.  of course microsoft's media
center does not  support viewing of avi files.

so ideally i would like a software solution that would support
1 or 2 hauppage cards,  a remote control, and viewing of mixed mpeg and avi
files, and scheduling of recording broadcasts.

any ideas?

[Miller]

I split this into your own topic so it didn't hijack the previous thread...

As for your post, if you want input on how to save some money you can always post your ideas and get feedback from the people here. I would have suggested a different videocard, but what you have works ok. A lot of us are trying to accomplish the same things you are and there is a wealth of info here.

As for the 2250, you're correct in that if you're not doing analog, then there are cheaper options out there, but I don't think there is one with dual-tuners. The 2250 is well-supported though and works very well with the software out there. It does take advantage of the hardware-based encoding for analog and most people have had a lot of success with the card. For your situation it may not be the best choice, but it depends on what you're trying to do.

MediaCenter will play .avis just fine, but you have to have the correct codec installed. Where are you getting the .avis?

MediaCenter and security cameras don't always work together well. You might want to use a separatye application for that.

[robertmaul]

thanks for moving it... (new here)

avi files from a friend of a friend.

so mythweb has a solution for vista that uses a linux server and videolan

not sure i want to get into all that...

thanks for your advice on the 2250.  i think i will go with that.

with some cheap video cams and some rf modulators i might be able to test out the
2250 as a low cost security cam recording device and make use of my now unused
in-house cable network. (something to keep this tired-old laid-off engineer busy)

what specific software options are there for the 2250 that run on vista?

sageTV? beyondTV? (websites not detailed)

i know mythTV is out since it is linux based.

anyone?

[Craig]

Alternative to the HVR 2250 if just capturing ATSC
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16815100041

[Miller]

Your good pvr program options are:

SageTV  www.sage.tv
BeyondTV  www.snapstream.com
GBPVR  www.gbpvr.com

All three work really well. You can also use MediaCenter from Microsoft.

[robertmaul]

thank you craig and thank you prof miller.

a couple questions for you craig:

1. have you used the AVerMedia AVerTVHD Duet - PCTV Tuner (A188 - White Box) - OEM ?
    good dual turner / capture option to keep cost low.  (better than 1250 one tuner option.)

    after doing about 1/2 hour worth of google forum work i have not come up with much.
    and i don't trust commercial site customer reviews. 

    can point me to some reviews that have a certain degree of probability to be unbiased?

2. got miss sweet and sour pork's phone number?  (i kid)

  thanks for your response!  i see you are always very helpful on this site but your profile
  suggests fat wallet hardware experience. 


that brings me back to you prof miller!  i see by your profile that your pvr might be a
year or two old not really high end stuff.

in your first reply you mentioned you might have gone with a different graphics card but
did not say which one... which one?

so for the benefit of our readers, me, myself and i...

1. what would you have done differently to my build choices and which of the
    three software solutions do you recommend? (please be specific)
    or would that not be apropriate as moderator?

also, since i have decided to go with the 2250 and monkey around with the notion
of using this pvr to double as a security camera recorder as well...

2. should i start a new thread for using a pvr as a security cam recorder?

and, if i get 2 - 2250 cards:

3. will the software solutions you recommended work with multiple 2250 cards?       
    is there a max number? (don't say avagadro's number

4. why couldn't i find anything when i searched for "security" on this site?
    not even my own thread...  are there threads no  that discuss using a pvr
    for recording security cams? this seems like an obvious use for a box like
    this.

thanks in advance!

robert






   

[Craig]

1. No, I haven't used it. I can't comment on the functionality of it. I was just making everyone aware of a 2 tuner on one card solution if you only needed one for OTA tuning.

2. I don't know why you would think my system is "Fat Wallet". I have some the most inexpensive parts. I try to balance cost with quality. If you read my build in this section of the forum the only thing that I spent a lot of money on unnecessarily was my case fans.